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NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER 
MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


Jmm 


8 

li 

BY 


ARTHUR  C.  COLE 


Reprinted  from  the  Proceedings  of  the 
MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  HISTORICAL 
ASSOCIATION,  Volume  VI 


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NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


r325.  / 
C7kn 
C^>p.  3 


NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 
By  Arthur  C.  Cole 

Political  nativism,  as  it  appeared  in  the  three  decades 
preceding  the  Civil  War,  was  a movement  of  protest 
against  the  part  which  foreigners  and  foreign-horn  citi- 
zens were  allowed  to  play,  whether  legally  or  fraudulent- 
ly, in  the  practical  workings  of  the  American  political 
system,  and  against  the  social  problems  and  economic  bur- 
dens which  foreign  immigration  was  thrusting  upon  the 
United  States.  “America  for  the  Americans”  was  the 
watch-word ; it  was  interpreted  to  mean  that  none  hut  the 
native-born  should  be  elected  to  hold  office.  The  leading 
tenet  of  the  nativists  required  an  extension  of  the  resi- 
dence requirement  for  naturalization  so  as  to  insure  that 
the  foreigner  had  ample  time  to  lose  all  active  political  in- 
terest in  his  fatherland  and  to  fit  himself  for  the  duties  of 
American  citizenship.  In  the  Northern  Atlantic  States, 
where  the  Irish  were  especially  numerous  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  hierarchy  powerful  and  active,  nativism  had  also 
a strongly  anti-Catholic  tinge.1  There  were  three  out- 
bursts of  nativism,  one  in  each  of  the  three  decades  noted, 
but  only  in  the  last  case  did  the  movement  enter  the  field 
of  national  politics  with  any  possibility  of  success.  It  was 
at  its  best  when  it  operated  locally  in  the  field  of  municipal 
and  State  politics,  where  it  oftentimes  sought,  as  a healthy 
movement  for  reform,  to  bring  public  attention  to  real 
evils  and  to  real  needs. 

The  declaration  was  frequently  made  by  nativist  lead- 
ers that  foreigners  were  the  objects  of  hostility  not  on  ac- 
count of  either  their  birth  or  their  religion  but  rather  be- 
cause of  “their  moral  and  political  idiosyncrasies,  hostile 

1 Scisco ’s  Political  Nativism  in  New  YorTc , pp.  16  ff 243  ff . 


4 NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


to  our  interests.” 2 A proper  question,  therefore,  is: 
What  justification  was  there  for  a political  organization 
in  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley  upon  such  a basis? 

There  is  a general  impression  that  the  Southern  por- 
tion of  the  Union  did  not  witness  the  results,  whether 
good  or  evil,  of  the  flood  of  immigrants  that  was  pouring 
into  the  country  in  steadily  increasing  volume.  The  great 
body  of  them,  indeed,  probably  seeking  a climate  and  en- 
vironment similar  to  that  of  the  country  of  their  nativity, 
landed  at  the  Northern  ports  and  settled  in  and  about  the 
large  cities  on  the  coast  or  made  their  way  with  the  west- 
ward movement  into  the  interior.  New  Orleans,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  a popular  port  of  entry  with  the  immigrat- 
ing aliens,  since  it  had,  at  that  time  when  immigration  was 
left  to  State  regulation,  no  effective  restrictions  upon  the 
admission  of  persons  of  questionable  physical,  mental,  or 
moral  capacity.  By  1850,  New  Orleans  was  second  only 
to  New  York  in  the  number  of  foreign  arrivals.3  The  aim 
of  those  who  selected  the  Southern  port  was  usually  to 
make  their  way  to  the  Northwest  by  following  up  the  Mis- 
sissippi Biver  and  its  tributaries.4  The  fittest  of  them 
did  so  but  since  the  United  States  was  then  the  dumping 
ground  of  crowded  Europe,  whose  nations  sent  over  many 
of  the  inmates  of  their  alms-houses,  asylums,  hospitals, 
and  prisons,  the  larger  cities  and  thickly  settled  districts 
acted  as  a filter  which  kept  behind  the  scum,  those  unfit  to 
attack  the  problems  of  the  frontier.  Thus  Louisiana  and 
Missouri  retained  a large  share  of  the  less  desirable  for- 
eigners, as  did  Kentucky  on  the  other  side  of  the  Missis- 

2 Whitney ’s  Defence  of  American  Policy,  pp.  238,  239. 

3 Bromwell  ’a  History  of  Immigration,  pp.  145,  149,  153,  157,  161,  165. 

^ Now  and  then  a European  traveler  prophesied  that  the  future  would 

see  ocean-going  vessels  making  their  way  up  the  Mississippi  and  its  tribu- 
taries and  by  canal  to  Lake  Michigan.  Ziegler’s  Seise  durch  Nord-Americka, 
in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  Vol.  XII,  p.  312. 


NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  5 


sippi  River.  These  three  States  contained  in  1850  nearly 
two-thirds  of  the  total  number  of  foreigners  in  the  South.5 

The  problems  regarding  the  foreigner  in  New  Or- 
leans, St.  Louis,  and  Louisville  were  little  different  from 
those  in  their  sister  cities  of  the  North.  They  had  a large 
foreign-born  population,  which  in  St.  Louis  outnumbered 
the  native-born.6  Their  hospitals  were  largely  filled  with 
foreign-born  patients,  their  jails  and  prisons  with  foreign- 
born  convicts,  their  alms-houses  with  foreign-born  pau- 
pers, their  streets  with  foreign-born  mendicants,  pick- 
pockets, thieves,  and  their  kind.  In  the  year  ending  June 
1, 1850,  Louisiana  supported  nearly  twice  as  many  foreign 
paupers  as  native-born,  while  Missouri  convicted  nearly 
three  times  as  many  foreign  as  native  criminals.7  Char- 
ity Hospital,  New  Orleans,  in  various  years  admitted  from 
two  to  eight  times  as  many  foreigners  as  natives.8  Inas- 
much as  the  foreign-born  population  of  these  two  States 
was  scarcely  one-fifth  of  that  of  the  native-born,  the  seri- 
ousness of  the  problems  growing  out  of  foreign  immigra- 
tion is  evident.  The  foreigners  in  general  retained  their 
pride  for  the  fatherland  and  associated  together  in  clan- 
nish exclusiveness,  forming  their  own  secret  societies, 
which  were  sometimes  political,  and  even  their  own  mil- 
itary companies.9  In  addition,  they  constituted  a source 

s DeBow ’s  Compendium  of  the  Seventh  Census , p.  52. 

« In  New  Orleans  the  two  elements  were  nearly  equal,  and  in  Louis- 
ville the  foreigners  were  nearly  one-half  as  numerous  as  the  native  Ameri- 
cans. — DeBow ’s  Compendium  of  the  Seventh  Census,  p.  399. 

7 DeBow 's  Compendium  of  the  Seventh  Census,  pp.  163,  164 ; Niles  ’ 
Register,  Vol.  LXVII,  p.  384. 

s A joint  committee  appointed  by  the  Louisiana  legislature  in  1835 
reported  the  treatment  of  1677  American  and  4287  foreign  patients  in  the 
preceding  year.  — Niles’  Register,  Vol.  XLIX,  p.  62.  In  1843  there  were 
5012  admissions  of  which  3859  were  foreigners.  — Niles’  Register,  Vol. 
LXV,  p.  343. 

s In  1854  there  were  in  New  Orleans  secret  societies  of  Germana, 
Irish,  Portugese,  and  Hebrews  besides  the  Turners  and  the  St.  George  So- 
ciety. New  Orleans  Bulletin,  March  17,  1854.  Every  large  city  had  its 
company  of  Irish  Jasper  Greens,  Hibernia  Greens,  etc. 


6 NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


of  political  evil  with  citizenship  often  illegally  conferred 
upon  them  and  as  the  ignorant  tools  of  corrupt  politicans 
in  innumerable  election  frauds. 

The  inevitable  result  was  the  early  development  of 
nativist  sentiment  especially  in  the  State  of  Louisiana. 
In  1835  a representative  of  the  property-holding  interests 
of  New  Orleans  protested  against 4 4 the  great  expense  that 
we  encounter  for  the  support  of  foreign  paupers  that  are 
vomited  on  our  shores  — by  thousands.”  “Is  there  no 
remedy f ” he  asked.  “These  are  among  the  first  to  join 
societies,  or  to  be  led  by  the  nose  by  them,  in  the  war  of 
the  ‘poor  against  the  rich’ — fools  that  would  perish  in 
the  streets  and  on  the  highways,  were  not  means  provided, 
by  property , for  their  support!”  10  In  the  same  year 
there  were  expressions  of  opinion  in  New  Orleans  against 
allowing  naturalized  citizens  to  hold  office.  Nativist  senti- 
ment soon  developed  to  such  a point  that  associations  of 
native  Americans  were  formed  in  New  Orleans,  St.  Louis, 
Louisville,  and  even  in  Lexington.  The  fruits  of  this 
movement  were  seen  in  petitions  to  Congress  from  citi- 
zens in  various  parts  of  Louisiana  and  Missouri  asking 
for  a repeal  of  the  naturalization  laws  and  sometimes  for 
a law  to  exclude  foreign  paupers.11  Alexander  Porter, 
who  had  formerly  represented  Louisiana  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  came  to  believe,  as  a result  of  the  increased 
immigration,  in  the  necessity  of  the  amendment  of  the 
naturalization  laws.  Said  Porter : ‘ ‘ The  mass  who  come 
are  of  the  poorer  and  more  ignorant  classes  and  show  the 
envy  and  hatred  in  which  they  have  been  converted  to  all 
possessors  of  property,  they  are  naturally  and  inevitably 
thrown  into  the  hands  of  Demagogues  here  who  flatter 
their  passions,  and  give  a direction  to  those  prejudices 
which  they  know  make  a part,  as  it  were,  of  their  nature.  ’ ’ 

Niles’  Register,  Vol.  XLIX,  p.  62. 

n Congressional  Globe,  26th  Congress,  1st  session,  pp.  104,  186;  Niles’ 
Register,  Vol.  LVIII,  p.  10;  Vol.  LIX,  p.  394. 


NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  7 


He  himself  favored  a fourteen  year  period  of  residence  be- 
fore naturalization  and  stricter  laws  in  general.12  The 
lower  house  of  the  Louisiana  legislature,  however,  by  an 
overwhelming  vote  passed  a resolution  requesting  their 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  to  use  their  in- 
fluence in  favor  of  a twenty-one  year  period  of  residence 
before  naturalization.13 

It  was  soon  evident  that  the  Whigs  of  Louisiana  and 
also,  though  to  a much  less  extent,  the  Whigs  of  Missouri 
and  Kentucky  were  becoming  infected  by  nativistic  senti- 
ments. This  was  a natural  development.  The  Whig  party 
at  large  represented  the  aristocratic  elements  of  the  na- 
tion, those  naturally  unsympathetic  with  those  classes 
which  were  socially  and  economically  less  fortunate  than 
themselves.  Partly  as  a result  of  this  fact,  partly  as  the 
result  of  the  attraction  of  the  name  ‘ ‘ Democratic ’ 9 and  of 
definite  inducements  held  out  by  the  Democratic  party, 
the  foreign-born  voter  almost  invariably  joined  the  Demo- 
cratic camp.  This  meant  that  the  foreign  vote,  holding 
the  balance  of  power,  was  cast  on  one  side  of  the  scales  to 
the  great  detriment  of  the  Whig  cause  which  was  thus 
overbalanced.  Whigs  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley 
were  able  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  this  fact.  As 
Porter  said,  1 ‘ Such  a mass  of  ignorance  and  passion  has 
a most  dangerous  influence  when  the  parties  in  the  coun- 
try are  nearly  balanced. 9 9 14  General  Taylor,  indeed,  was 
unwilling  in  1848  to  make  a contest  on  strict  party  lines 
as  the  Whigs  would  be  sure  to  be  defeated  ‘ ‘ particularly 
when  we  take  into  consideration  the  immense  influx  of  for- 
eigners into  the  Union  who  are  daily  arriving  and  all  of 
whom  are  carried  to  the  polls  whether  naturalized  or  not, 

12  Alexander  Porter  to  Crittenden,  January  2,  1841.  — Crittenden 
Manuscripts. 

is  Niles’  Register , Vol.  LIX,  p.  404. 

1*  Alexander  Porter  to  Crittenden,  January  2,  1841.  — Crittenden 
Manuscripts. 


8 NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


ninety  of  whom  out  of  a hundred  if  not  more  vote  the 
Democratic  ticket.  ’ ’ 15 

There  were  two  logical  extremes  of  policy:  for  the 
Whigs  to  bid  against  the  Democracy  to  secure  a share  of 
the  foreign  vote  or  to  take  a stand  against  immigration 
with  the  idea  of  stopping  the  influx  of  foreigners  from 
which  the  Democratic  party  alone  was  profiting.  The 
Whigs  in  general  chose  to  do  neither;  their  natural  in- 
clinations prevented  them  from  doing  the  one,  the  other 
alternative  was  too  un-American  to  win  their  favor.  They 
were,  however,  in  a position  to  realize  the  importance  of 
the  evils  consequent  upon  the  unrestricted  immigration  of 
the  time  and,  accustomed  to  opposing  the  foreign-born 
citizens  as  political  opponents,  Whigs  were  naturally  at- 
tracted to  political  nativism. 

The  Whigs  of  Louisiana  were  practically  compelled 
to  assume  nativistic  ground  by  the  tactics  of  their  op- 
ponents. Before  a special  election  of  a State  Senator  in 
New  Orleans  in  September,  1843,  hundreds  of  foreigners 
were  fraudulently  naturalized  by  Judge  B.  C.  Elliott  of 
the  city  court  of  Lafayette  for  which  he  was  promised  fees 
from  the  local  Democratic  Committee.16  At  the  election  the 
naturalization  papers  were  recognized  as  valid  at  all  the 
polls  except  one,  and  there  the  ballot-box  was  seized  and 
destroyed  by  the  would-be  voters  and  their  friends.17  So 
strong  was  the  impression  of  fraud  and  so  loud  were  the 
protests  of  the  Whigs  that  the  lower  house  of  the  Louis- 
iana legislature  appointed  a committee  to  investigate  the 
charges  against  Judge  Elliott.  As  a result  of  the  report 
of  this  committee  the  House  preferred  against  him  articles 
of  impeachment  which  were  tried  before  the  Senate.  El- 
liott was  found  guilty  on  all  the  articles  and  was  formally 
removed  from  office.18  The  Senate  decided,  however,  de- 
ls Taylor  to  Crittenden,  March  25,  1848.  — Crittenden  Manuscripts. 
is  Senate  Documents,  28th  Congress,  2nd  session,  Vol.  IX,  No.  173. 
i7  Niles’  Register,  Vol.  LXVI,  p.  64. 

is  Senate  Documents,  28th  Congress,  2nd  session,  Vol.  IX,  No.  173. 


NATIYISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  9 


spite  the  protests  of  the  Whig  press,  that  the  verdict  did 
not  affect  the  validity  of  the  certificates  of  naturalization 
issued  by  Judge  Elliott.19 

At  the  municipal  election  in  April,  1844,  and  at  the 
State  and  congressional  election  on  the  first  of  July,  there 
were  further  clashes  in  New  Orleans  between  Whigs  and 
naturalized  citizens  under  Democratic  direction.  The 
Democrats  insisted  on  the  voting  rights  of  persons  pos- 
sessing certificates  of  naturalization  granted  in  former 
Judge  Elliott’s  court,  and  prevented  Whig  citizens  from 
voting  whenever  the  Whig  election  officers  refused  to  ad- 
mit such  votes.  Public  sentiment  became  strongly 
aroused.  A public  mass  meeting  was  held  on  the  Fourth 
of  July,  in  which  the  French  creoles  took  a leading  part. 
It  protested  against  4 4 the  recent  outrage  upon  the  elective 
franchise”,  upheld  the  rights  of  legal  voters,  whether  na- 
tive-born or  naturalized,  and  resolved  4 4 That  we  will  not 
permit  mercenary  foreigners  who  have  by  fraud,  corrup- 
tion and  perjury,  obtained  spurious  certificates  of  nat- 
uralization, to  interfere  with  our  rights  and  franchises  — 
bought  with  the  best  blood  of  our  ancestors  and  secured 
to  us  by  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  state  — and  we 
solemnly  warn  them  not  to  attempt  to  interfere  with  those 
rights  — an  attempt  which  they  may  be  assured  will  be 
met  and  repulsed  whenever  and  wherever  it  may  be  again 
made.”  20 

There  followed,  nevertheless,  in  November  even  more 
serious  difficulties  in  connection  with  the  presidential 
election.  The  Plaquemines  frauds  were  committed,  de- 
spite . ,peated  protests  of  the  Whigs,  largely  by  per- 
sons of  foreign  birth  under  Democratic  leadership.  Ex- 
citement became  even  more  intense.  When  the  legislature 
met,  the  Whig  House  promptly  ordered  an  investigation 

19  He  was  convicted  of  illegally  granting  about  1748  certificates  of 
naturalization.  The  question  of  their  validity  was  shortly  tested  before  the 
Federal  Courts.  — Niles’  Register,  Vol.  LXVI,  p.  277. 

20  Niles’  Register,  Vol.  LXVI,  pp.  323,  324. 


10  NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


which  revealed  the  part  that  foreign  voters  had  played 
largely  by  resort  to  fraud  and  violence  in  giving  the  elec- 
toral vote  of  Louisiana  to  the  Democratic  candidates.  A 
resolution  was  therefore  passed  requesting  the  Louisiana 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  to  use  their 
endeavors  to  have  the  naturalization  laws  amended  so  as 
to  prevent  fraudulent  voting.21  Thus  it  was  that  “Whig- 
gery”  in  Louisiana  became  so  strongly  nativistic  that  no 
room  was  left  for  a State-wide  independent  third  party 
movement  on  that  basis. 

The  Whigs  of  Kentucky,  especially  those  of  Louis- 
ville, showed  similar  inclinations  toward  nativism. 
George  D.  Prentice,  editor  of  the  Louisville  Journal , an 
influential  Whig  paper,  was  extremely  active  in  exposing 
the  evils  that  resulted  from  unrestricted  immigration. 
His  aggressive  editorial  policy  aroused  the  hostility  of  the 
foreign-born  against  himself  and  his  party  not  less  than 
it  aroused  a vigorous  nativism  among  the  native-born.  A 
series  of  clashes  led  up  to  a serious  outbreak  at  the  time 
of  the  August  election  in  1844.  Nativists  decided  to  sta- 
tion themselves  at  the  polls  to  prevent  illegal  voting, 
whereupon  the  editor  of  a local  German  paper,  the  Beo- 
bachter , rashly  printed  advice  to  the  German  voters  to 
go  to  the  polls  armed  and  prepared  to  force  a recognition 
of  their  rights.  This  advice  the  Journal  translated  and 
circulated  with  observations  as  to  the  seriousness  of  the 
situation.  The  native  citizens  were  aroused ; a mob  gath- 
ered before  the  Beobachter  building  and  threatened  the 
editor  and  his  press.  He  and  a few  of  the  more  active 
German  leaders  sought  safety  in  flight  across  the  river 
to  Indiana  where  they  remained  until  the  excitement  sub- 
sided. 

In  Missouri  nativism  developed  more  quietly  until,  in 
August,  1845,  in  the  election  of  members  of  a convention 
to  remodel  the  State  Constitution,  four  out  of  the  St.  Louis 

2i  Niles’  Register,  Vol.  LXVII,  p.  384. 


NATIYISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  11 


delegation  of  six  were  Native  Americans.22  In  the  charter 
election  at  St.  Louis  in  April  of  the  following  year  the 
whole  “American”  ticket  was  elected,  the  Whigs  having 
placed  no  ticket  in  the  field.23  In  both  Kentucky  and  Mis- 
souri State  nativist  organizations  were  formed  and  were 
represented  at  the  first  National  Convention  of  the  Native 
Americans  at  Philadelphia  in  July,  1845.24 

Following  the  presidential  contest  of  1844,  Johnson 
and  Barrow,  the  two  Whig  United  States  Senators  from 
Louisiana,  openly  advocated  a modification  of  the  natural- 
ization laws,  especially  the  extension  of  the  residence  re- 
quirement to  twenty-one  years.  When  Congress  con- 
vened Johnson  introduced  a resolution  into  the  Senate,  in- 
structing the  Judiciary  Committee  to  inquire  into  the  ex- 
pediency of  such  a modification,  and  as  to  the  necessity  of 
introducing  additional  guarantees  against  fraudulent  nat- 
uralization, against  fraud  and  violence  at  elections,  and 
against  the  introduction  of  foreign  convicts.25  To  make 
possible  a thorough  investigation  of  these  points,  Barrow, 
his  colleague,  submitted  supplementary  resolutions  en- 
larging the  scope  of  the  inquiry  and  giving  the  Committee 
authority  to  send  for  persons  and  papers  and  to  take  testi- 
mony by  commission.26  Both  resolutions  passed  and 
Commissioners  examined  into  conditions  at  all  the  chief 
ports,  including  New  Orleans.  The  Commissioners  at 
New  Orleans  found  that  they  were  seldom  able  to  secure 
the  attendance  of  Democrats  as  witnesses;  after  having 
examined  a number  of  Whigs,  who  were  pronounced  in 
their  nativism  and  who  explained  the  local  situation,  they 

22  Niles’  Register,  Vol.  LXVIII,  p.  400. 

23  Niles ’ Register,  Vol.  LXX,  p.  112. 

24  Lee’s  American  Party  in  Politics,  p.  229;  Niles’  Register,  Vol. 
LXVIII,  pp.  292,  307. 

25  Senate  Journal,  28th  Congress,  2nd  session,  pp.  30,  37. 

2fl  Senate  Journal,  28th  Congress,  2nd  session,  pp.  40,  44. 

Another  resolution  by  Johnson  called  for  such  papers  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  State  as  might  throw  light  on  the  transportation  of  paupers  and 
criminals  to  this  country  by  the  European  governments. 


12  NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


completed  their  report  by  adding  to  this  testimony  the 
data  gathered  in  the  two  investigations  previously  made 
by  the  Louisiana  legislature.27 

The  nativistic  inclinations  of  the  Whigs  increased 
with  their  disappointment  over  Clay’s  defeat  in  1844. 
This  they  attributed  in  large  part  to  the  solid  array  in  the 
Democratic  ranks  of  the  foreign-born  voters  augmented 
by  an  unprecedented  series  of  fraudulent  naturalizations 
in  the  Atlantic  seaboard  States  and  in  Louisiana.  Whigs 
in  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley  commented  on  this  point 
with  great  bitterness  of  feeling.  This  was  true  even  in 
Alabama  and  in  Mississippi,  States  in  which  very  little 
attention  had  hitherto  been  given  to  either  the  foreigner 
or  the  nativist.  “By  enlisting  foreigners  on  their  side 
through  the  darkest  frauds  ever  practiced  in  a free  Gov- 
ernment, Democratic  leaders  have  come  into  power,”  de- 
clared the  Tuscaloosa  Monitor  of  November  20th.  “The 
question  will  probably  arise  whether  the  Government  is  to 
be  controlled  by  the  native  population,  or  by  rabble  for- 
eigners, many  of  whom  are  from  the  lazar-houses  and 
jails  of  Europe.  It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  the  most 
disorderly,  profligate,  and  dangerous  classes  in  our  large 
cities  are  ignorant  foreigners.”  28  The  Vicksburg  Con- 
stitutionalist filled  its  first  issue  after  the  election  with 
nativist  arguments  and  soon  became  the  organ  for  this 
movement.29  Clay’s  friends  everywhere  in  condoling 
with  him  over  his  defeat  burst  out  in  bitter  denunciation 
of  the  part  played  by  foreigners  in  making  possible  the 
Democratic  victory.  “With  their  name,  their  corrup- 
tions, and  their  numbers  they  will  continue  to  beat  us  for- 
ever — unless,  indeed,  we  can  check  them  by  restraining, 
if  not  destroying,  the  influence  of  foreigners  — There  is 
a deep  feeling  on  that  subject  throughout  the  country, 

27  Senate  Documents,  28th  Congress,  2nd  session,  Vol.  IX,  No.  173,  pp. 
144-197. 

28  Miller ’s  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia,  Vol.  II,  p.  388. 

29  Mississippi  Historical  Society  Publications,  Vol.  IX,  p.  186. 


NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  13 


which  I hope  will  be  responded  to  from  Washington,  and 
I think  Whig  politicians  need  not  be  afraid  of  it  — for  if 
we  cannot  whip  our  opponents  on  that  question  we  are 
whipped  forever.”  So  wrote  a correspondent  of  Critten- 
den who  was  personally  familiar  with  the  situation  in  ev- 
ery part  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley.30  Clay  himself 
saw  reasons  for  alterations  in  the  naturalization  laws,  but 
feared  that  the  time  was  not  quite  ripe  for  a correction ; 
he  acknowledged  strong  sympathies  for  the  Native  Amer- 
icans and  their  party  and  thought  that  they  ought 4 4 to  cul- 
tivate friendly  relations  together. ’ 9 31 

As  the  excitement  which  followed  the  election  of  1844 
subsided  and  new  and  important  issues,  the  Mexican  War 
question  and  the  sectional  quarrel  over  the  territorial 
question,  came  to  the  front,  nativism  everywhere  steadily 
declined  and  passed  from  the  field  of  active  politics  until 
new  conditions  furnished  a basis  for  a new  and  greater 
nativist  movement.  The  revival  of  nativism,  however, 
did  not  come  for  several  years  when  it  arrived  under  con- 
ditions which  gave  promise  of  considerable  success. 

Stronger  than  ever  before  were  the  motives  for  what 
proved  to  be  the  most  successful  expression  of  political 
nativism  in  American  history.  For  one  thing,  the  period 
of  the  early  fifties,  under  the  impulse  of  famine  conditions 
and  of  unsuccessful  revolutionary  movements  in  Europe, 
brought  an  unprecedented  flood  of  foreign  immigration. 
As  a result  the  States  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley  re- 
ceived both  desirable  and  undesirable  accessions  to  their 
population.  The  additions  of  questionable  desirability 
were  of  two  classes:  one  was  made  up  of  the  physically 
and  mentally  defective  immigrants  who  were  often  direct- 
ed by  immigrant  agents  to  take  ship  for  New  Orleans 
where  the  provisions  for  excluding  them  were  not  strin- 

30  A.  T.  Burnley  to  Crittenden,  December  3,  1844.  — Crittenden  Man- 
uscripts. 

a*  Coleman’s  Life  of  J.  J.  Crittenden,  Vol.  I,  p.  224;  Clay  to  J.  M. 
Clayton,  December  2,  1844.  — Clayton  Manuscripts. 


14  NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


gent,32  and  who  in  the  Southwest,  like  their  kind  elsewhere, 
became  parasites  in  the  large  cities;  the  other  included 
many  “red”  reformers  who,  as  political  exiles  from  their 
native  lands,  were  naturally  ultra-Democratic,  who  did 
not  hesitate  to  criticise  American  Democracy  as  a mongrel 
or  bogus  type,  and  even  to  designate  the  United  States  as 
a sham  land  of  liberty.  As  to  the  latter,  groups  of  the 
more  aggressive  sort  gathered  in  the  cities  where  they 
often  organized  so  as  to  secure  for  the  foreign  vote  a 
larger  political  influence.  A German  of  this  type,  as  ed- 
itor of  the  Anzeiger  des  Westens  at  St.  Louis,  at  an  early 
date  recommended  that  the  Germans  form  a separate 
political  party,  a proposal  which  stirred  up  considerable 
excitement.33  Louisville  became  a center  for  the  German 
political  exiles  and  the  headquarters  of  a national  asso- 
ciation of  “Free  Germans”  which  was  formed  so  that 
the  Germans  might  be  able  1 ‘ to  exercise  a power  propor- 
tionate to  their  numbers  and  adapted  to  their  prin- 
ciples. 1 ’ 34 

A second  factor  which  helped  to  determine  the 
strength  of  this  later  nativist  movement  in  the  Southwest 
was  the  bearing  of  foreign  immigration  on  the  slavery 
issue.  About  1850  Southern  slaveholders  began  to  see 
that  the  extensive  population,  prosperity,  and  political 
strength  of  the  North  were  in  large  part  due  to  the  acces- 
sion of  emigrants  from  Europe,  who  were  coming  to  Am- 
erican shores  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  every  year, 
bringing  annually  to  the  North  an  adult  population  larger 
than  the  voting  strength  of  certain  Southern  States. 

32  The  State  Department  informed  the  mayor  of  New  Orleans  of  this 
fact.  — Sanderson ’s  Republican  Landmarks , p.  80. 

This  was  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Louisiana  had  in  1850  enacted  more 
stringent  legislation  to  prevent  the  immigration  of  persons  who  would  be 
liable  to  become  a public  charge  or  a public  nuisance.  — duskey ’s  Political 
Text-book,  p.  219. 

33  St.  Louis  Intelligencer,  August  19,  September  24,  25,  1851 ; National 
Intelligencer,  September  11,  1851. 

34  National  Intelligencer,  April  27,  1854. 


NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  15 


Realizing  this,  they  became  ready  to  oppose  in  Congress 
proposals  for  a homestead  law  in  which  the  unnaturalized 
foreigner  should  he  given  the  same  treatment  as  the  Am- 
erican citizen  and  proposals  for  equal  political  rights  for 
foreigners  in  the  Territories,  both  of  which  they  inter- 
preted as  attempts  at  providing  inducements  for  further 
accessions  to  the  strength  of  the  North.  As  the  foreign 
immigrants  and  the  foreign-born  citizens,  who  came  to  this 
country  instinctively  prejudiced  against  slavery,  began 
to  display  their  anti-slavery  propensities,35  many  South- 
erners regardless  of  party  affiliations  beheld  in  nativism 
a means  of  self-defense  which  they  felt  would  aid  them 
in  the  dread  sectional  controversy. 

They  felt  that  nativism  would  serve  as  a cloak  to  hide 
their  sectional  motives  in  opposing  such  a liberal  treat- 
ment of  the  foreigner  as  would  stimulate  further  immi- 
gration to  the  North.  Indeed,  they  so  used  it  in  1854  in 
the  debates  on  the  general  Homestead  Bill  and  on  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill.  As  to  the  proposition  to  give 
political  rights  to  unnaturalized  foreigners  in  the  new 
Territories,  Senator  Atchison  of  Missouri,  a Democrat, 
declared:  “It  is  not  that  I fear  the  votes  of  the  foreign 
population  upon  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  Territories 
of  Kansas  and  Nebraska ; but  it  is  upon  the  great  principle 
that  none  but  American  citizens  should  exercise  the  right 
of  suffrage  and  the  right  of  holding  office,  either  in  the 
States  or  Territories. ’ ’ 36  On  the  question  of  extending 
homestead  rights  to  unnaturalized  aliens  the  Southerners 
again  advocated  this  same  principle  that  native,  or  even 
naturalized,  citizens  who  had  rendered  some  service  to  the 

35  Many  of  these  foreigners  were  ready  with  expressions  of  sympathy 
for  the  negro  and  denounced  slavery  as  a “political  and  moral  cancer.’ ’ 
About  the  time  when  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  was  before  Congress  they 
began  to  speak  out  with  especial  boldness.  The  Illinois  Staats  Zeitung. 
September  20,  1854,  issued  an  appeal  for  a Republican  party,  a great  Amer- 
ican “Liberty  Party.”  Missouri  Republican , September  25,  1854. 

3«  Congressional  Globe,  33rd  Congress,  1st  session,  Appendix,  p.  301. 


16  NATIYISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


country,  ought  to  be  favored  over  newly  arrived  aliens, 
who  were  unacquainted  with  our  language  and  institu- 
tions and  often  of  questionable  reputation  and  moral  char- 
acter. Some,  however,  revealed  their  real  motive.  Sen- 
ator C.  C.  Clay  of  Alabama,  who  in  1838  had  declared  that 
foreigners  ought  to  be  treated  liberally  and  ought  to  he 
given  preemption  rights,  now  declared  against  the  policy 
of  giving  them  homestead  rights  on  the  ground  that  no 
measure  was  “better  calculated  to  excite,  to  foster,  and 
encourage  a Native  American  feeling”  than  the  Home- 
stead Bill  with  this  feature.  He  predicted  that  if  the  Bill 
passed  unamended  a powerful  Native  American  party 
would  soon  appear  in  the  Southern  States.37 

Nativism  was  revived  in  the  early  fifties  first  in  the 
Northern  States  where  under  favoring  conditions  an  or- 
ganization was  formed,  which  came  to  be  generally  known 
as  the  Know  Nothing  party ; soon  a fiery  wave  of  nativism 
swept  over  the  whole  country.  In  the  early  part  of  1854 
it  began  to  make  its  appearance  in  the  Lower  Mississippi 
Valley.  In  New  Orleans,  where  fraudulent  naturaliza- 
tion and  fraudulent  voting  continued  to  flourish,  nativist 
sentiment  revived  in  a more  aggressive  form;  a secret 
political  order  was  organized,  a “reform”  ticket  was 
placed  in  the  field,  and  in  a local  election  in  March,  1854, 
the  majority  of  the  “reform”  candidates  were  elected.38 
A little  later  at  St.  Louis,  the  nativists  suddenly  devel- 
oped great  strength  and  won  an  important  victory.39  Sim- 
ilar success  rewarded  nativist  efforts  in  the  municipal 
elections  in  Nashville  and  elsewhere  in  the  Southwest.40 
This  was  rapidly  followed  by  the  formation  of  State  or- 
ganizations which  sent  delegates  to  represent  them  at  the 
National  Councils  of  the  order.  Alabama  was  represent- 
ed at  the  first  Grand  Council  of  the  order  in  June,  1854. 

37  Congressional  Globe,  33rd  Congress,  1st  session,  p.  1705. 

38  New  Orleans  Bulletin,  March  29,  1854. 

39  St.  Louis  Intelligencer,  August  1,  2,  4,  and  7,  1854. 

^0  Nashville  Bepublican  Banner,  October  2,  3,  and  4,  1854. 


NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  17 


In  Mississippi,  as  in  Louisiana,  there  was  soon  a strong 
nativist  organization  of  indigenous  origin  which  remained 
for  some  time  without  any  affiliation  with  the  national 
order. 

The  local  and  State  organizations  of  the  Know  Noth- 
ing or  American  party  in  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley 
did  not  sympathize  with  that  strong  anti-Catholic  feature 
which  was  a necessary  concomitant,  indeed,  almost  a syn- 
onym of  nativism  in  the  North.  Where  there  were  few 
Catholics  — and  in  most  of  the  Southern  States  they  con- 
stituted but  a very  small  fraction  of  the  population  — 
most  Americans  disclaimed  any  intention  of  religious  pro- 
scription.41 In  Louisiana,  where  the  strong  Creole  ele- 
ment was  largely  Catholic,  persons  of  that  faith  were  ad- 
mitted into  the  local  order  in 'which  many  of  them  occu- 
pied prominent  positions.  An  attempt  was  made  by  the 
Southern  representatives  in  the  American  National  Coun- 
cil of  June,  1855,  to  abolish  the  religious  test  from  the 
party  creed ; because  it  failed,  the  regular  Louisiana  dele- 
gation was  given  no  recognition  by  the  national  organiza- 
tion.42 The  Louisiana  State  Council  rejected  the  religious 
test  imposed  by  the  National  Convention  and  immediately 
nominated  for  the  approaching  State  election  a mixed 
ticket  of  Protestants  and  Catholics  headed  by  a Catholic 
Creole  candidate  for  Governor.43  Representatives  of  the 
American  party  of  Louisiana  continued  to  demand  that 
the  anti-Catholic  feature  of  the  national  platform  be 
struck  out.44  The  Alabama  and  several  other  State  or- 
ganizations in  the  South  officially  disclaimed  any  intention 
of  religious  proscription45 

41  Nashville  Republican  Banner , January  21,  26,  and  April  11,  1855; 
Mobile  Advertiser,  May  5,  June  16,  July  8,  and  September  1,  1855. 

42  New  York  Herald,  June  6-16,  1855 ; New  Orleans  Bulletin,  June 
23  and  25,  1855. 

**New  Orleans  Bulletin,  July  6,  1855;  New  Orleans  Bee,  July  6 and 
7,  1855. 

44  Speech  of  Eustis  in  Congressional  Globe,  34th  Congress,  1st  session, 

p.  166. 

45  Mobile  Advertiser,  June  16,  1855 ; Savannah  Republican,  June  30, 


18  NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


The  American  party  in  the  Southwest,  however,  suf- 
fered from  the  association  with  it  of  religious  proscrip- 
tion and  from  the  charge  of  religious  intolerance.  It  suc- 
ceeded in  the  State  elections  in  1855,  nevertheless,  in  at- 
tracting a following  of  about  the  same  size  as  the  Whig 
opposition  which  it  replaced.  This  included  victories  in 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  although  in  the  latter  Andrew 
Johnson,  a Democrat,  was  reelected  Governor  in  a close 
contest.  Altogether,  in  Louisiana  and  the  four  States  on 
the  eastern  side  of  the  lower  Mississippi,  the  Americans 
polled  nearly  215,000  votes,  or  only  sixteen  thousand  less 
than  their  veteran  opponents. 

Throughout  the  South,  particularly  in  the  Southwest, 
the  members  of  the  defunct  Whig  party  were  strongly  at- 
tracted to  the  possibilities  in  this  American  party  as  an 
effective  reorganization  of  the  opposition.  The  tradition- 
al conservatism  of  the  Whig  party  and  the  traditional 
flavor  of  aristocracy  were  taken  over  by  it.46  Even  on  the 
repudiated  bonds  question  in  Mississippi  the  Know  Noth- 
ings, like  the  Whigs,  recognized  the  obligations  of  the 
State  to  arrange  for  their  payment.47 

Conservative  Whig  slaveholders,  and  Democrats  as 
well,  were  attracted  to  the  order  also  because  of  its  posi- 
tion on  the  slavery  question.  It  was  able  in  the  National 
Councils  to  take  conservative  middle  ground,  and  the 
Northern  members  of  the  party  for  a time  generally 
evinced  a sincere  desire  to  put  down  the  slavery  agitation 
and  to  check  the  tide  of  anti-slavery  in  their  section.  The 
leadership  in  the  Southwest  of  such  men  as  Senator  Bell 
of  Tennessee  gave  a definite  standing  to  the  order  and  a 

1855;  National  Intelligencer,  September  6 and  October  23,  1855;  New  Or- 
leans Bulletin,  August  22,  1855 ; Lee ’s  Origin  of  the  American  Party,  pp.  225- 
228. 

The  Kosciusko  (Mississippi)  Southern  Sun,  April  1,  1854,  called  it 
an  organization  “ gotten  up  by  an  infamous  conclave  of  Whig  aristocrats  in 
New  Orleans.  ’* 

47  The  Kosciusko  (Mississippi)  Southern  Sun,  November  4,  1854; 
Jackson  Mississippian,  December  9,  1854;  Vicksburg  Sentinel,  April  24,  1855. 


NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  19 


proof,  if  such  were  needed,  of  the  respectability  of  the 
movement. 

It  is  clear,  however,  that  emphasis  came  to  be  laid  on 
the  sectional  question  at  the  expense  of  a genuine  nativ- 
ism.  The  American  Representatives  in  Congress  from 
the  Southwest  were  few  in  numbers  hut  all  were  surpassed 
in  sincere  nativist  efforts  by  Senator  Stephens  of  Missis- 
sippi, a former  Democrat,  who  became  so  active  as  an  ad- 
vocate of  a reform  of  the  naturalization  laws  (to  require 
a twenty-one  year  residence  before  citizenship  should  be 
conferred  upon  an  alien)  that  he  was  repudiated  by  the 
Democratic  party  of  his  State.48  Emphasis  in  the  Ameri- 
can party  was  rather  laid  on  the  all-important  slavery 
question:  more  space  in  the  local  platforms  and  greater 
attention  on  the  hustings  were  given  to  this  question  than 
to  the  fundamental  tenets  of  the  party.  By  this  time, 
however,  the  American  party  in  the  Southern  States  was 
influenced  by  motives  vastly  different  from  those  of  the 
founders  and  from  those  of  the  nativists  of  the  preceding 
decade. 

Nativism  in  the  South,  indeed,  had  become  a party 
question  resting  largely  on  sectional  ground.  It  was  on 
that  basis  that  its  strength  and  weakness  was  largely  de- 
termined. It  was  on  that  basis  that  it  rested  its  case  in 
the  election  of  1856  when  it  offered  in  Millard  Fillmore,  as 
its  candidate  for  the  presidency,  a man  who  as  chief  ex- 
ecutive had  been  willing  to  concede  to  the  South  a gener- 
ous consideration  in  national  politics  and  who  took  the 
same  ground  as  candidate  for  another  presidential  term. 
By  that  time,  however,  the  national  organization  had  been 
torn  to  dissension  by  the  force  of  an  unrelenting  section- 
alism ; the  strength  of  the  party  was  in  the  South  but,  ex- 
cept in  Louisiana  and  Missouri,  it  stood  in  a peculiarly 

48  Congressional  Globe,  33rd  Congress,  2nd  session,  pp.  15,  24-26; 
Congressional  Globe,  34th  Congress,  1st  session,  pp.  6,  450,  1409;  Viclcsburg- 
Sentinel,  December  27,  1854,  and  April  11,  1855. 


20  NATIVISM  IN  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 


anomalous  position.  It  took  but  a few  years  more  for  the 
Southern  opposition  to  drop  the  “American”  alias  as  a 
disguise  that  had  been  penetrated.  In  the  Lower  Missis- 
sippi Valley  the  survivals  of  a genuine  nativism  continued 
to  drag  out  a slowly  expiring  existence. 


